Okay, not exactly a window question, but I have gotten so much help here with my current project from such helpful and knowledgeable people that I hope it is okay to ask this here.

Contractor that did our windows also did our roof, and he finished the siding Friday. Only thing left to do is install shutters and gutters. With the roof he installed a ridge vent. He opened the soffit to allow proper air flow.

A neighbor came over today and asked why did he install gable vents. I looked up on the internet and sure enough gable vents are not recommended with the ridge vents. It states that gable vents were designed to let hot air out and with the ridge vents they will now bring in air. This will be harmful in two ways. First it will reduce the suction from the bottom. Second it could allow rain and snow to enter the gables vents.

Is this a big enough deal that I should insist that he rip the upper layers of siding off, fill and the holes and reside? I cannot access two of the gable vents from the inside without cutting the sheetrock in the ceiling.

I drove around the neighborhood today and there are plenty of existing and new construction houses that have both ridge and gable.

We got a new roof a couple of years ago and I became aware of this issue through my research. We went from box vents to ridge vent. My roofer just put some kind of thick foam board behind each gable vent to not let air in. Otherwise air introduced into the attic would be confused and not exit properly. As far as I know this fixed the potential issue.

One is easy to get to from the inside as it is in the garage and is right there, not an issue at all.

The other two are not that simple. Theyare up at the top of the house and there is no access to the inside crawl that connects the two. Only way to do so would be to cut a hole in the ceiling and then to patch the hole and then repaint the ceiling. Times 2 if I found that easier than navagating across all the fiberglass covered joists to get to the other one. Would the ceiling patch be invisible? It would be right above the windows and right in line as you walked into the room.

Considering that roofing and siding is this guys only business I think he should have known this, and he has been in business for 20 years. I don't think it is my responsibility to fix it myself. Which would you choose to do? Fix it from the inside or just remove 5 or 6 pieces of double 4 siding and replace? Seems easier to me to just do it from the outside, no?

If the siding is vinyl, it probably is easier to do on the outside than patching up drywall, etc... Window/siding installers can be good at their craft without knowing the science behind it, and unfortunately this is often the case. I'm not sure that it would be reasonable that you demand that he fixes it, however it would not be out of line to explain that you've done some research and determined that the gable vents should be covered. He should be willing to compromise in some way. Just be delicate in your wording, as most contractors (or pros in any field for that matter) will take a hit to the ego when you tell them that they were wrong.

Here is a photo of the soffit covering that he used. Rather than holes in every row it skips 2. Are there enough holes in the material to get a good flow? They cut good sized holes in the sheathing, so that is not an issue.

the way those soffits are vented is fine. of course there should be openings in the original soffits for the new ones to function properly. your contractor ( like most ) just dont understand the science behind ventilation, hence leaving the gable vents after installing a ridge vent. your contractor probably thought he was doing the right thing..i prefer to use " hidden vent" soffits.. although much more money, looks alot cleaner in the end.

I have a raised ranch and the two upstairs bedrooms are in the roof. Walls and ceiling are divided by sheetrock attached to the rafters. So on either side of the walls I have triangular a crawl that I can get into from the closets. Above the ceiling there is a SMALL triangular crawl that goes from front to back. I wonder if I could actually crawl without hitting the rafters. Only place for an access hole would be right in the middle of the room.

I am sure he thought he was doing the right thing. Probably would have been cheaper and faster to leave them out.

Owner came today and I spoke to him about the gables. He did get a little defensive. He said that on his new construction that he does not put them in, but since I was grandfathered he replaced them. Stated that it cost him more money to put them in as he had to buy them and install around them.

He also stated that on days where the temperature is not excessive that there will be no draw at the top and that the gables will provide ventilation at that time. I did not want to argue, so I just let it be. Not really sure about his logic that it was grandfathered in. If it is better for new construction is should have been enough for mine.

He is correct that it probably cost him more to keep them, just incorrect on the other points. It would be best to cover them at some point, regardless of which side you choose.... Sounds like they did a nice job otherwise.

Can't really complain about the man and his workers otherwise. Did a good job at a good price.

I do worry about one other thing and I also asked him about it this morning. We replaced all windows in the house but two nice Marvins in the kitchen. One of them has a geometric dome at the top and is inches from the soffit that is at least 15 inches deep. I had them replace the aluminum trim on the outside of the windows so that it did not look out of place.

The man cut 3 inch long pieces of aluminum to fit around the radius and when he installed them he started at one end and went all the way to the other side. This means that the overlap is wrong for half the arch. I questioned the owner and he said that it would of looked ugly if he did it up from both sides. Personally I do not agree. He swore that no rain will get behind. I just don't see how that is possible. They did not even caulk the seams there as they said it will darken and get ugly fast.

Even though this is somewhat under an overhand I would think that a wind driven rain could splash water to it and allow it to drip down. He said that even if he sprayed a hose on it it would not get down there.

Seem possible?

Ken

While I am at it. The gutter guy came today and installed everything. The front beam is 35 feet and there is such a slope to the gutter that there is about an inch of the beam showing above the gutter on one side. Is this common? Looks ugly as not only is the space above bothersome, but the space below looks lopsided too. Am I being too picky? In the back the same span is even. The man stated this is the way it has to be.

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